What is Trace and Access cover?

Your home insurance package is designed to safeguard the structure and fabric of the building and the contents of your home. But what about covering the cost of those annoying – and potentially expensive – occasions when some fault or other has to be traced? That often calls for the walls, floors, or ceiling of the property to be disturbed and opened up simply to gain access to the problem.

That is why many of our landlord insurance policies offer trace and access cover as a standard feature.

So how does trace and access cover help to safeguard your home or let property? What protection does trace and access cover offer to the homeowner or landlord?

Defining the problem

If there is a problem or incident in your property that is covered by your home or landlord insurance, you may think that’s the problem solved and the end of the matter. Unfortunately, simply resolving the issues may have consequential effects in other areas.

For example, if you have a spreading damp patch that has clearly arisen as a result of a leaking pipe, a plumber coming into your property might not immediately be able to see where the water is coming from to discover where the fracture or other problem is.

The industrious tradesman might need to start digging up floors or removing plasterwork in several different areas before they can identify the source and fix the problem.

What is trace and access cover?

So, imagine the scene – since it’s probably not at all unusual: your tenant has reported a damp patch on the ceiling. Being a responsible landlord, you send round a tradesman to investigate. It is then only a few minutes after he has arrived that he telephones to say that there is a leak of water from a burst pipe but asks whether you are prepared to pay for the work involved in tracing and gaining the necessary access to fix the leak.

A similar scene might play out as you sit down to dinner with the family in your own home, notice that damp patch on the wall, call out the plumber, and are told that you may need to pay for the costs of tracing the problem and accessing it to make the repairs.

Your landlord insurance or home insurance might cover the bill for any damage or loss caused by the leak. But the – potentially expensive – work involved in tracing it and then gaining access to repair the leak might not be covered by your insurance policy.

It is a shortfall that may catch out many home and let property insurance policyholders.

Even so, you have little option but to go ahead and conduct the necessary trace and access, since just the smallest of leaks can end up causing major damage to your property if left unrepaired. Leaving it unrepaired then leaves you responsible for “contributory negligence” if the damage worsens – and the settlement of your insurance claim is likely to be reduced accordingly.

Trace and access insurance at Cover4LetProperty

Here at Cover4LetProperty, our home insurance and let property insurance policies include trace and access cover either as standard or as an optional extra.

This gives you the reassurance and peace of mind in knowing that when you discover – or a tenant reports – a plumbing or electrical cable problem, for example, your insurance not only covers the loss and damage caused by that issue and the repairs required to address it (under the buildings element of your property insurance policy) but also covers the cost of tracing and gaining access to the site of the problem (and repairs thereafter).

It is a potentially expensive business since trace and access might involve stripping wallpaper, digging out plasterwork, or taking up floorboards to make the necessary repairs and stop the leak or resolve the problem.

What’s involved?

An illustration of the amount of work that might be involved in tracing and gaining access to a leaking pipe is given by the UK Leak Detection company and describes the sophisticated technology and equipment they may sometimes need to employ:

• instruments of various kinds used to measure the moisture in a wall or other surface where the leak is suspected;
• infrared cameras – which might be used to detect leaks under a solid floor by measuring deviations in temperature, and helping to limit the area of flooring that might need to be excavated;
• endoscopic surveys – using techniques developed by surgeons in the field of medicine, endoscopy involves making just a small hole near to the site of the suspected leak and inserting an endoscopic camera to take photographs or even videos;
• ultrasound detection – another technique borrowed from medical science is the use of high-frequency sound waves to build a picture of possible ruptures to pipes or leaks; and
• air pressure testing – by the use of carefully controlled air pressure equipment, engineers can detect any fall in pressure over a particular part of a water or central heating system and home in on that section of pipework to make the necessary repairs.

An action plan

If you take the prudent path by looking to arrange trace and access cover, it is still worth taking a few precautionary steps – as you would before buying any kind of insurance cover – to know exactly where you will stand in the event of a claim.

All insurance policies are different, of course, and what might be covered by one insurer may be excluded by another.

As with any policy, terms and conditions apply. For example, if there is no actual damage to the property caused by an escape of water, then you may not be able to claim for the repairs of sourcing the leak.

In short, insurance claims about repairs to your home or let property may be more complicated than they first appear – especially if expensive trace and access measures are involved. Specialist cover is available to indemnify you against this particular loss, so, trace and access cover may be incorporated as standard into your property insurance or available as an optional extra.

If you have any doubts or queries about your home insurance, landlord insurance, or the trace and access cover it provides, please feel free to get in touch with us.